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The content of each post is solely written by that contributor and only expresses the contributor's personal views. Each post does not represent the views of all the contributors or Women of Color Living Abroad as an organization. Each contributor is speaking from their own person experiences and/or perspective.

Saturday, May 12, 2012

If You Get A Man, Make Sure He’s Rock Hard

May 2012-Brittany S.

While my friends back home were “celebrating”
Cinco de Mayo, (and by celebrating, I mean taking advantage of the drink &
Mexican food specials haha), Koreans were celebrating “Children’s Day.” For this day, many Koreans took their child(ren)
to (amusement) parks, museums, theaters, and other child-friendly places
throughout Korea. Because I knew
everywhere I went would be extremely crowded on this day, I chose to stay at
home…that is until my오빠 (pronounced “Oppa”)or “older brother” texted me in broken English to ask me if I was free. (To read more about "Oppa" and what it is like to have one, click here.) I felt honored that my Korean family wanted
me to celebrate a holiday with them, so I agreed to tag along.

My Korean family consists of a husband
and wife, their son, and their son’s friend (and occasionally, his mom joins
us, too). Out of the group, the kids
speak the best English and the adults barely speak to me (until the소주/soju (vodka-like alcohol) gets to
flowing) because they feel embarrassed by their low levels. My Korean is far worse than their English,
but I try to speak Korean to them as much as I can. That helps them to loosen up because we are
both trying). Before I thought they just
wanted me around to improve the kids’ English, but then I started being invited
to dinner and they would cook/buy Western food just for me when the kids weren’t
even around. So fast forward from
January to now and that’s how we arrived at the text to come out for Children’s
day. My 오빠
said he’d pick me up at “13 o’clock, O-K?”

When I got in the car, I saw there was a
full picnic spread in the back seat.
There was plenty of delicious Korean food for the trip, including kimbap,
a cheap, filling, Korean snack. I like
all of the food he packed so I couldn’t understand why he asked me if I was
hungry then made a pit stop at a chicken place to buy me something because I
said yes. I’ve been with them for over 4
months, but they STILL think I can’t/don’t eat Korean food (or use chopsticks
when I do eat it). I just smiled in
gratitude and he reciprocated with a smile of satisfaction that he had taken
care of his동생 (“dongsaeng”=younger brother/sister).

Originally I was told we were going to “see
many flowers” by the kids. I assumed
they meant a botanical garden. Somewhere
between driving to the botanical garden and arriving at our destination, they
decided to change the itinerary because there was a lot of traffic. (We also ended up making a random pitstop when
he shouted “Brittany…McDonald’s! You like?
We go.” Haha so yea, I got chicken AND a burger before we even made it
to our picnic site.) Instead, we ended
up at “Art Valley.”

Sounds museum-like
doesn’t it? Well, it was a
MOUNTAIN. We ended up walking up a
mountain! OMG. I was all kinds of sweaty and out of breath
while EVERYONE ELSE (as I was the only foreigner out of the 100+ people we saw
there) went flying past me. I wish I
would have known we were going to do that.
I would have worn different clothes!

When I finally made it to the top (where
everyone else was waiting for me), the view was breathtaking (or maybe I was
already winded?). They told me some
people drilled holes in part of the mountain and put dynamite in it to remove
part of it. When they did, water
eventually filled in the holes and now there is a natural lake at the top of
the mountain. Cool! There were fish in it and everything. We sat down and had our picnic (with another
family that caravanned with us) and the kids went around terrorizing everyone
and shouting that they are “The Hulk” (I took them to see “The Avengers” the day
before). When we finished, they offered
us children (yea, apparently I’m included in that group) some ice cream before
we resumed walking.

That's a whole lot of rice wine bottles. O.o

At the bottom of the touristy part of
the mountain, there were plenty of statues and exhibits (I guess this was the “valley”
part). My 언니 (“un-nee” or “older sister”) teased me and another woman for being
single and told us she knows EXACTLY how to get us a man. Oh boy.
She waited until the men and children were away then grabbed our hands and
went running. So while we’re running and
she’s pulling me along, I’m thinking maybe she is going to take me somewhere to
touch something for good luck, or maybe she actually saw some attractive men
she wanted us to meet. I was so
wrong. She took us to a rock statue of
the bottom half of a naked man that has been smashed by the mountain. She tried to get us to go sit on his crotch
so she could take pictures, but the most she could get out of us was a shy pose
near the feet. The other woman (who
speaks English) told me she’s not satisfied because it’s too small. Later she even tried to get one of the kids
to go and sit up on the crotch. Wow.

It's called "The Sound of Wind" or something misleading...

I couldn’t help but laugh and blush at this moment. Laughter is universal. It was also fun to participate in the same
type of jokes I make with American women with Korean women, even with the
language barrier. Body language speaks
volumes. My언니 encouraged us to look for a rock hard man in the future, and if we can’t
find one, remember where we left that one.
I guess that goes for all of you single women out there, too. The statue is located in Pocheon city (in
Gyeonggi province) in South Korea just in case you get lonely. ;-)

I eat dinner at their house regularly. They only cook Korean food (they always hand me a fork, too even if I am already using the chopsticks). However, from time to time I do appreciate them being considerate of my Western palate. It balances out :-)

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About Me

This blog is part of Expat Women of Color website (www.expatwomenofcolor.com). It was designed to educate and provide resources for women of color who desire or are currently living abroad. This blog was created to help promote information about how to travel in different countries, inexpensive ways to travel, lessons learned while traveling, and resources that can help other women who desire to take the leap and move abroad in the future. Welcome ABROAD!